08/13/12 08/13/12 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is "democracy now!" >> join me in welcoming the next president of the united states, paul ryan. every now and then i'm known to make a mistake. [laughter] i did not make a mistake with this guy, but i can tell you he is going to be the next vice- president of the united states. >> mitt romney announces his running mate, paul ryan, a man with a plan. >> our rights come from nature and god, not from government.

>> paul ryan, seven-term congressman from wisconsin. we will discuss his views with three wisconsinites, matt rothschild, john nichols, author of "uprising: how wisconsin renewed the politics of protest, from madison to wall street." and nicole safar a plan. advocates of wisconsin. all of that and more coming up. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. and a major shakeup, it features new president mohammed morsi has dismissed cairo's top two generals -- field marshal hussain tantawi and military chief of staff sami enan. tantawi had served as ousted leader of hosni mubarak's defense minister for two decades and headed the powerful supreme council of the armed forces. tinto is not indicated whether he accepts the move to replace them with general abdel fattah

al-sisi. in addition, morsi quash the army's recent constitutional declaration is that occurred the new leader's powers. in a speech, morsi said the moves are for the benefit of this nation. the focus of the presidential race turns to iowa today as both president obama and mitt romney snoop running mate visit -- at romney's new running mate visit the hawkeye state. romney selected the republican congress member from wisconsin on saturday morning. >> if they elect paul ryan and me, we will do five things that will bring back america's economy. you'll see a resurgence in jobs, a resurgence in our competitiveness. you will see us finally get america contract a balanced budget. >> romney's selection is expected to fire of the conservative base of the

republican party. ryan has become a tea party favorite for pushing a controversial budget and economic vision, marked by deep cutbacks to the social safety net coupled with lower tax rates. over the years, ryan has pushed for privatizing such as security, dismantling medicare, and slashing funding for medicaid. he has also proposed cutting food stamps for as many as 10 million americans, cutting funds for programs like meals on wheels, and eliminating pell grants for more than 1 million students. on the tax front, ryan has proposed a plan to cut taxes for the wealthiest americans will raising taxes on some of the poor. "the new york times" reports that by one statistic sokol count, ryan is the most conservative vice presidential nominee in over a century. >> america is on the wrong track, but mitt romney and i will take the right steps in the right time to get us back on the right track. [applause]

i believe that my record of getting things done in congress will be very helpful, compliments to mitt romney. [applause] i have work clothes. republicans and democrats to advance an agenda of economic growth, fiscal growth. i am proudest out the man who understands what it takes to foster job creation in our economy. >> more on paul ryan after the headlines. hillary clinton has announced the united states and turkey will study a range of new measures to help the syrian opposition, including a possible no-fly zone. clinton's remarks of the closest washington has come to suggesting direct military action in syria to oust syrian president bashar al-assad. >> the planning, with the

minister and i agree to today, was to have very intensive operational planning. we enclose the coordinating over the course of this conflict, that webut now we need to get io such details of operational planning and needs to be across both of our governments. certainly, our two ministries are coordinating much of it, but our intelligence services, our military have been very important responsibilities and roles to play. >> the united nations humanitarian chief valerie amos has announced she will travel to syria and lebanon this week to discuss ways of increasing aid to civilians caught up in the syrian conflict. adrian edwards is a spokesperson for the u.n. refugee agency. >> lebanon, turkey, jordan, and iraq reporting increases in the number of refugees from syria which primarily reflects the number of people who have registered or in the process of

being registered shows a total population of 146,667 people as of yesterday evening and several countries we know that to be substantial refugee numbers, but these people have not yet registered. >> it has been another bloody weekend in afghanistan. and earlier today, a bomb attack in northern afghanistan killed five people, including a district mayor and a local member of the government-run peace council. on sunday, a roadside bomb in eastern afghanistan killed a district government chief and three of his bodyguards. on saturday, a member of the afghan national police opened fire and killed at least 10 of his colleagues in southwestern afghanistan. on friday, six u.s. troops were killed. early on friday, three u.s. marines were gunned down by an afghan police commander and his men after accepting an invitation to have dinner. later on friday, an afghan civilian working at a nato base shot dead three more u.s. soldiers. brigadier general gunter katz of

nato responded to the killings of u.s. forces. >> those incidents do not clearly reflect the overall situation in afghanistan. almost 500,000 soldiers and policemen are working together side-by-side, enhancing their trust and enhancing the corporation in order to gather five for a better future of this country and together to pressure the insurgency. >> sikh worshippers at the oak creek temple in wisconsin held their first official service sunday since a neo-nazi attacked the campbell, killing six people. hundreds came across the country to take part in the service predict today's earlier, attorney general eric holder spoke before thousands of people at a memorial service in oak creek. >> unfortunately for the sikh community, this violence has become all too common in recent

years. to many sikhs have been targeted and victimized simply because of who they are, how they look, and what they believe. that is wrong, it is unacceptable, and it will not be tolerated. >> the islamic center of murfreesboro, tennessee opened friday. over the past two years, the mosque site had come under repeated attacks, including arson and vandalism rid a pair of powerful earthquakes in iran have killed over 300 people and injured thousands. the two earthquakes struck northeast iran on saturday. the red crescent said more than 1000 villages in the area were affected. a group of mexican activists across -- have crossed into california to become a month- long peace convoy to call for into the drug war. the caravan for peace is organized by the mexican poet and activist javier sicilia. his son was killed by drug traffickers last year.

>> we're going to the united states. they owe us peace. together, we need to construct this piece. it is the time for citizens, as said by benjamin franklin, "we don't all work together to create peace, peace, any peace, we have nothing." >> you can go to democracynow.org for our interview with javier sicilia. democrats are accusing the democrats secretary of state of new mexico of attempting to purge more than 177,000 voters from the state's voter rolls. postcards were recently sent to the voters saying that to verify their voting status in order to remain active. voters targeted included the wife of a democratic state representative as well as diane wood, the voting rights director for common cause new mexico. diane wood has been an active voter since 1971 and criticize the actions of the new mexico's

secretary of state dianna duran. >> i am just shocked that i took my job to fight for other people's right to get their votes counted, and now i'm having a fight for my own. i just don't know why secretary iran is doing this to people, tried to take our votes away. >> as the olympic games wrapped up sunday, a global hunger summit was held in london. it was attended by world leaders as well as several olympic athletes. the british prime minister hosted the meeting. >> figures are truly shocking. one in three child deaths are linked to malnutrition and 171 million children are so malnourished by the age of 2, that never physically recover. that is the terrible thing about what we would call a silent crisis, because it harms for life. >> president obama is expected to announce the department of agriculture intends to buy up

to $170 million pork, lamb, chicken, and catfish to help support farmers suffering from the nation's worst drought in over 50 years. the food purchases will go toward food nutrition assistance programs like food banks. new york police shot and killed a 51-year-old african-american man in the heart of times square on sunday to play afternoon -- saturday afternoon. police fired 12 shots at darrius kennedy who was first confronted by police for smoking marijuana. police said they fired at him when he refused torders to drop the knife and moved toward them brigit in occupied news, a judge in hong kong has ordered occupy protesters to abandon their encampment outside the bank headquarters of hsbc by august 27. activists having camping at the site since october. brigadier-general tammy smith has become the openly gay officer of fly greg wright, the first openly gay officer a flat

rate in the u.s. military. on friday, smith came out when she had her wife and her star to her uniform during a promotion ceremony. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show with the latest news in u.s. presidential race. on saturday, republican presidential hopeful mitt romney announced congressman paul ryan of wisconsin would be his vice presidential running mate. ryan, now 42, was elected to the house of representatives at 28. he is chair of the house of representatives budget committee. ryan spoke in virginia right after his selection was made. >> i asked by governor romney to serve the country that i love -- [applause] jams built, wisconsin is where i was born and raised and never really left. it is our home now.

for the last 14 years, i have proudly represented wisconsin in congress. [applause] there i have focused on solving the problems that confront our country, turning ideas into action and action into solutions. i am committed and heart and mind to putting that experience to work in a romney administration. [applause] this is a crucial moment in the life of our nation. it is absolutely vital that we select the right man to lead america back to prosperity and greatness. [applause] batman is standing right -- that

man is standing right next to me. his name is mitt romney and he will be the next president of the united states of america. [applause] my dad died when i was young. he was a good and decent man. there are few things that he would say that have stuck with me. he was a, "son, you're either part of the problem are part of the solution." regrettably, president obama has become part of the problem and mitt romney is the solution. >> paul ryan was born in janesville, wisconsin, where he still lives with his wife and three children. he is a practicing catholic. as chair of the house budget committee, ryan was the architect of a controversial budget plan to cut spending by over $5 trillion over the next 10 years. democrats have argued that his planned medicare and medicare reform -- medicaid reform would essentially dismantle key components of the social safety net. speaking in north carolina on

sunday, romney contrasted his team's economic policy from that of the present administration. >> there are some that are fearful that if we stay on the track we're on, we will end up like greece and we will have, like europe has, the chronic unemployment, low wage growth, and fiscal calamity at the door. that is not the path we will take us down. i see our president making as more and more like europe. i do not want to be like europe. >> in wisconsin, reaction to ryan's addition to the republican ticket was mixed. president obama won the state in 2008, but this year romney hopes to win the state's 10 electoral votes. this is a wisconsin residents. >> we need more fiscal responsibility and politics and i think paul brings that to the table. i think that is his greatest asset. spending and spending and not having the moment and printing more money to solve the world's problems i don't think is the way to go. i think paul is one of the few in politics that is willing to address that head on.

i think it is a great choice for the >> other residents expressed concerns about his fiscal policies. this is also a resident of wisconsin print >> i personally do not agree with the direction of paul ryan wants to go. i don't plan on voting for either of the major two parties. i really hold environmental concerns as my chief eyes and plan on voting for the green party and help other people consider them as well. >> mitt romney continued touring key states over the weekend in what some analysts say is a revitalized campaign with ryan by his side. to talk more about the complications -- implications of his vice-presidential candidacy, we go to wisconsin where we're joined by matt rothschild, editor and publisher of "the progressive grocer magazine. in new york, we're joined by john nichols, author of, "uprising: how wisconsin renewed the politics of protest, from madison to wall street." we welcome you both to "democracy now!"

john, you heard the news on saturday. were you surprised? >> i actually heard it late friday night. i had written some articles about paul ryan last week, not anticipating ththe certainty, but it was clear he was moving up the ladder rapidly. i spoke to many last week. romney and his aides had made statements and actions that caused many to be upset. they knew they had to make a hard right choice progress and those issues? >> an aide to mitt romney had said, started talking up romneycare. on the right wing, the conservative base hates obamacare and also romneycare. that caused an coulter the say, maybe we should not even bother with this year's presidential race. the right was upset. a baxter it was bigger. the former u.s. trade representative at world bank was puttinput in charge of the trann

campaign but many were furious. they thought romney was selling them out. the pressure from "the wall street journal" and other publications as well as politico, with high on ryan but i'm not sure ryan was in the running, but there is no doubt that at a point where mitt romney was worried about maintaining his base, paul ryan became a much more attractive choice because ryan is immensely popular with the base. >> when you, matt rothschild, heard the news, as you were there in wisconsin, you have covered ryan from the beginning at "the progress of" magazine. talk about who paul ryan is. >> i was of north fishing in northern wisconsin, so it did kind of take me off my vacation. i was surprised just as john was but my initial feeling was that

he was going to go with pawlenty or portman. paul ryan is a better snake oil salesman as a free market capitalism, unbridled capitalism, then either of those two. i think he is better retell political skills. he is a better person to person kind of guy, down to earth. most people seem to like him read in his home town, he has been winning reelection easily up until now. the i think that is another reason why romley chose sen. first of all, he started his career as a staffer with bob kasten, a real right-wing banker from wisconsin. it was a sleazy campaign credit line with to work for sam brownback -- it was a sleazy campaign. then he went to work for sam brownback. he has always been this kind of

-- he considers himself a genius in economics, but he is kind of the one eyed man in the kingdom because his theory of economics is really absurd. he blames fdr and fdr's policies permitting the great depression worse, similarly blames obama for making the economy worse in the first two years. i think any economist of stature would say fdr certainly helped get us out of the great depression by reducing unemployment from 25% to 10% and obama, though his economic revival in the stimulus package was not as big as it should have been, but it did create jobs. even john mccain's old economist said that. ryan gets a lot of mileage for understanding so-called the budget and economics, but if you look closely, he does not really get it. >> paul ryan was heavily influenced by the controversial

philosopher karl writer, ayn --d, known for collectin he gave copies of her novel to his staff as christmas presents. i want to turn to a clip of congressmember ryan speaking about iran's influence on him. >> the reason i got involved in public service by and large if i had a credit one person it would be ayn rand. the five women and it is individualism vs collectivism. and almost every fight we're in, whether it is an amendment to vote for a policy we're pushing through our ways and means committee, it is a fight that usually comes down to a individualism vs collectivism. when you take a look at where we are today, some would say we're

on offense and some would say defense. i was say it is a little of both. when you look at the 20th century experiment with collectivism that ayn rand did such a good job of articulating the pitfalls of sadism and collectivism, he cannot find another thinker or write to you did a better job of describing and laying out the moral case for capitalism then ayn rand. >> now vice-presidential nominee, paul ryan. john nichols, talk, the significance for people have never heard of ayn rand. >> most people mispronounced the name. paul ryan is a deep, deep scholar of and reader of ayn rnand. she was a russian immigrant. her family came to the u.s..

throughout her writing career, was a militant opponent of what she called collectivism read what she meant was government. beyond that, a critic even of helping your neighbor. she said that selfishness must be the central precept of your life in the most important thing was to take care of yourself. paul ryan started reading ayn rand as a young man and has read all of her books. he has appeared at celebrations and events for rates and cut a video in which he said in these times, about two years ago, one of the most important things people can do is read ayn rand. said it is one of the best ways to respond to obama's election. what is fascinating, a couple of months ago, speaking at a catholic university, the number of catholic scholars wrote a letter saying, with a problem because ayn rand was an atheist who is very condemnatory of what

we think of as catholic social justice, teaching, and all that. ryan did in it to be in said, "i'm not really a fan of ayn rand." he was distancing himself from a hero critics contend christianity for it of getting compassion for the poor, the the feminist movement as on it, and cold air is almost totally primitive savages. >> she did not back ronald reagan in 1980 because he was anti-abortion. she got abortion was a great idea. maybe for not the best reasons. despite paul ryan's wild attempts in recent months to distance himself from ayn rand, there was a quote yesterday from his brother who said "payl vers of aynrtvery rand."

i think he melts social issues with ayn rand's philosophies with a selfish image of how we should relate. >> we will take a break and come back to this discussion with john nichols in the studio, family goes back generations in wisconsin and matt rothschild, and the wisconsin studio, editor of "the progress of" magazine. we will be back in a moment. ♪ [music break] ♪ [music break]

>> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue our coverage of republican presidential candidate mitt romney selecting a long time wisconsin congressmember paul ryan as his

running mate. on sunday, president obama responded to the announcement. speaking at a fundraiser in chicago, he welcomed paul ryan to the race, calling him the ideological leader of the republican party. >> his idea propagated by the other side that somehow we're going to grow this economy from the top down and that if people at the top are doing really, really well, then everyone else will automatically benefit. now, this kind of top down economics is central to governor romney and it is central to his running mate. just yesterday morning, my opponent to as his running mate, the ideological leader of the republican in congress, mr. paul ryan. i want to congratulate -- look, i want to congratulate congressman ryan. i bought them into the race -- i

want to welcome him to the race. he's a decent man, a family man, inarticulate spokesman for governor romney's vision. but it is a vision i fundamentally disagree with. >> that was president obama at a chicago fund raiser. our guest is matt rothschild, editor of "the progressive", and john nichols, author of, "uprising: how wisconsin renewed the politics of protest, from madison to wall street." he wrote a biography of another vice-presidential candidate to become vice-president, cheney. it's called "dick." with the president is saying he is the chief ideologists of the republican party? >> i think that is correct. i do not know why obama needed to second the nomination of paul ryan. maybe things it is a big plus for his campaign.

obama has been praising run for the last couple of years during budget negotiations, praising him for his seriousness on his proposals on medicare and social security and budget reform, even though he did not agree with them did you have to be careful what you ask for because i think the believes some have in the democratic party about running against romney-ryan needs to be qualified because it is possible ryan will help the ticket. as the ideologists of the republican party, this is a victory any way for wall street, a victory for the republican party's right wing because here you have a guy out there peddling this stuff constantly about how great the free enterprise system is and we need to cut government and how deficits are the worst thing in the world and we have to focus on them as opposed to helping people. it is quite possible that ryan may help in wisconsin and may help in other states. the question as to whether he

will help in places like florida because of his assault on medicare. you're just talking about ayn rand. ryan says medicare and social security are part of a collectivist system. this is really part of the republican agenda now for the last seven years to repeal the new deal. ayn rand and reiner giving it ideological justification for that -- ryan are giving the ideological justification for that. unless obama takes them head on , this is not one to be good for the progressive agenda. what bothers me is obama has a tendency to want to play things for the middle or meet people half way. in the budget negotiations with boehner a couple of years ago or last year were he was open to a grand bargain. even some of the staffers have said he would be open to it grand bargain again. ryan was talking on 60 minutes

about a compromise. is that really what we're going to get to? i hope not. >> john nichols there is another ayn rand influence on the economy? >> alan greenspan. >> and was close to her personally. >> there's a picture of her in the white house with them back in the 1970's, at least to an opponent of some kind. look, there is an influence. i think we should not underestimate it. i have to suggest there is a cynicism in paul ryan. he is a really nice guy. he is easy to get along with and talk to. if he was sitting on the show, you might disagree, but you'd have a dialogue, much more what they would with other conservative republicans. but while he talks about really not liking government in being opposed to government, the truth is, wehe voted for the auto

industry bailout, medicare part b, so for all his talk about finding a balanced budget, the fact is, what really seems to want to do is empower wall street. its huge amounts of money from many of the same interests we might talk about with the banks and other folks. >> you could say there was a conflict of interest. mitt romney chooses paul ryan who puts forward a plan that would enormously personally benefit mitt romney. >> the thing is, people look at ryan's budget plan and say it attacks medicare and medicaid and social security. it does begin a deconstruction of them. but what it really does is return full-scale supply-side economics. ryan's plan does not balance the budget for 28 years. it is about massive tax cuts

for very wealthy people, multinational corporations, and the beginnings of the redistribution of federal spending from funding programs like medicare and medicaid and social security and to wall street an insurance companies. his notion of using vouchers to help people "buy their medicaid" is meant in terms, is a whole lot richer. the fact is, here's a guy who gets immense amounts of money from wall street, the banks, koch brothers who is proposing a budget -- >> the pentagon? more than they asked for? >> absolutely. this guy saying, i want to take care of your grandkids and make sure they do not have debt. we simply wants to do as much of the government keeps collecting taxes but ships them over to wealthy people. >> matt rothschild, during the

weekend, as the campaign together and separately, and almost mantra of the republican candidates, a paul ryan and mitt romney, was that president obama would cut $700 billion from medicare and it would save medicare. >> they are trying to cover their backsides because they know there are vulnerable on medicare. the ryan plan would have seniors and $6,000 more a year -- $6,000 more year for health insurance with the voucher plan. they're not many seniors in this country who want to pay $6,000 more. >> explain what paul ryan has put forth -- and it is unusual his put forth a very clear budget, head of the house budget committee. explain what it means to talk about medicare as vouchers. giving seniors a chance to

choose. >> he would give people on medicare, people over 65, a voucher to go into the private insurance market and help the private insurance companies out by buying insurance, as john says. it would be a fixed amount at about $5,600. but there is no limit on the insurance premiums the insurance companies can raise them to. the sky is the limit. as the insurance companies raise their rates, that voucher will be worth less and less over time. overly people will have to shell out from their own pockets more so than they would under the traditional medicare system that 90%-95% enjoy and appreciate and are in favor of >> last fall, ryan talked about cutting social security as a means of debt reduction. let's turn to a clip of a senior citizen who spoke out during the meeting, called the escorted out of the room. >> [unintelligible]

but unemployment and social security and medicare, now you're going to -- [unintelligible] >> i hope he has taken his blood pressure medicine. >> that was paul ryan being questioned by a senior citizen and the senior citizen was then escorted out. >> and every town hall meeting, the interesting thing, paul ryan flew under the radar for a long time reid his district is small towns and cities. stationso big tv there. for a long time he was able to create this image at home, a nice guy, always at the fourth of july parade, and many people were not fully aware of what his agenda was. when they became aware, he started coming back to these town hall meetings, there were

packed with angry, angry people. i was at one where there were a handful of people out of the hundreds there who were not opposed to what he was proposing. this is one of the complexities of paul ryan's b. he won at a time when people were not fully aware of where he was going. he saw the joke about the older of germans and, "i hope he has taken his blood pressure medicine." the man did not a blood pressure medicine, he was mad. a similar situation at a parade. a guy runs up and says, "i am concerned about the fact our gm plant has closed, this town is losing jobs." ryan gave him a piece of candy and walked away. >> let's talk about ryan and where he comes from. >> paul ryan lives on the same street where he grew up.

there'll be this attempt to portray him as a blue-collar guy from a white. he lives in a mansion. the mansion is still there, paul ryan owns it. the plant isn't. it was shut. at the general motors plant that employed thousands of people was shut as well. janesville as a wonderful town where russ feingold grew up. it has suffered dramatically from the industrialization. it has been hit hard by our trade policies. throughout his career, paul ryan has voted for free trade policies pretty much across the board. i say this as someone who group

a few miles away from that area, it is out of sync with what was best for that district. he is not a blue-collar republican, or republican of deep roots and working class communities. he is a republican that has got a lot of money from wall street and use that to maintain a seat. now he's taking his policies national. it will be disappointing to me if he is spun by the media as a working-class republican. >> some suggest paul ryan's budget would cut. i want to go to a clip for he is proclaiming he does tax the top rig he shifts gears and says small businesses create most jobs and should not be burdened by high taxes. >> [unintelligible] [boos] >> let's remember, most of our

jobs come from success of small business. [unintelligible] when you raise the tax rates to what the president is proposing, i fundamentally disagree. it will hurt job creation pretty >> that is paul ryan at a town hall meeting. matt rothschild, if you could respond to that but also second in the context of the different tendencies in wisconsin, which is a historic place, the home of mccarthy in the home of la follette, and explain who they are. >> and the economic question, here you have paul ryan with the traditional republican message that if you cut taxes for the wealthy and cut taxes for business, that everything will be great. but what drives the economy as consumer demand. we need to get enough people with money in their pocket so they can buy things so that

people can be hired in the economy will it going. paul ryan is against minimum wage and against government jobs programs and anything that would stimulate the economy from the federal level. i think he has that all wrong. you are right, wisconsin is an odd schizophrenic place, the founder of the progressive magazine and movement and home of joe mccarthy, the terrible red bathing senator from wisconsin in the 1950's. you had that terrible split. we saw that last year and up to this year with the recall scott walker were the state is virtually, which means people identify with the republicans and progressives. that is a battle that is not unique to wisconsin. i think it is all over the country, but it is especially in focus in wisconsin read you can feel the polarization almost every day. >> john nichols the head of the

national committee, york governor scott walker who won his recall -- i was watching him yesterday on television saying his major victory in the recall was a real sort of green light for ryan to be chosen because it shows the direction people want to go in this country. the three of them are very similar, even look alike progress they do a little bit. there are different heights. ryan is taller and much more athletic. priebus is a constituent of ryan's. he is from kenosha. scott walker is just -- is from an area just on the edge of rhine's district. there from a corner of wisconsin. there is a subtlety to this. one of the reasons that reason is because wisconsin is such a divided state.

it is a real battleground. sometimes our presidential race is being decided by about 10,000 votes. republicans in wisconsin had to get good at retail politics. that to learn how to go out and campaign and spinneys economic messages any effective ways. be cautious about paul ryan. we can talk about ayn rand and the medicare/medicaid and policies that are deeply unsettling to people, but understand this guy is to reach a retell politician. he can spin the crowd while romney one extreme, he added some interest to get that is a much better communicator. he knows how to stir it up, how to fight and places that are not necessarily easily republican turf. this is not necessarily a foolish choice by romney, although, it is an extreme

choice. it does define the national republican party. very anti-labour, willing to make deep cuts in education, public services, and frankly, very combative on issues like voter id and a host of other things they're really gutted the court questioning of how successful our democracy will be. >> the issue of social security. mitt romney has been somewhat careful, never coming out with a plan, yet here you have paul ryan who is a man with a plan, a very clear plan, and it has to do it medicare-medicate, such as security. he has taken on social security from the beginning. can you explain paul ryan's plans for social security? >> he wants to do two things. was to parse the privatize social security so people can instead of investing in the

social security system as you automatically do now, but invest some of those funds and wall street. he would lift the retirement age from 65 to 67. we would be working longer and longer. we would have more of our savings at risk. the problem with investing in the stock market, if the market goes down, you are out of luck. what happened in the new deal, one out of three elderly people who were in poverty. after the new deal and the great society programs like got under 10%. do we want to go back or we have one out of three elderly people who are in poverty? that is the system that paul ryan may drive us to. >> president bush would not adopt paul ryan's budget plan. his recommendations. >> that gives an indication of just how far right paul ryan is.

his to the right of both president bushes, and to the right of dick cheney on some of these issues. we have a guy who is just so far over to the edge that he may hurt romney's chances in some ways because of that, but i think on the other hand to help the republican agenda, the wall street agenda, the primitive free-market capitalist agenda because he will be out there every day paddling this stuff. unless obama and biden can hammer that into the ground, we're going to have to live with the consequences of that whether romney-try and win or not. >> thank you, matt rothschild, for being with us, editor of "the progressive" magazine. and john nichols, author of, "uprising: how wisconsin renewed the politics of protest, from madison to wall street." when we come back, we will be joined by a third wisconsinites, was with planned parenthood, wisconsin pause pro- choice organization, which has

clinics throughout the state. a bomb placed at one of those clinics last april. we will talk about paul ryan's record on women's reproductive rights. stay with us. ♪ [music break] ♪ [music break]

>> head of the dep. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. if you want to send in a music video or selection, go to our facebook page or democracynow.org and do that. we would love to run it. we continue our coverage of mitt romney sterley announced vice-presidential running mate congressmember paul ryan. falling on the far-right spectrum of his own republican

party, ryan opposes abortion in all situations including cases of rape and incest. he also opposes abortion in cases that endanger an expectant mother's health. barbara lyons, executive director of wisconsin right to life said -- planned parenthood meanwhile is criticizing ryan not only on his extreme stance on abortion but also his endorsement of the so- called personhood amendment, which supports defining a fertilized egg is a human being. ryan was a co-sponsor of the sanctity of human life act, which even the conservative state of mississippi rejected last november. the consequences of such an amendment passing are unclear, but many infer it would make infertility treatments and birth control possibly illegal -- and with all this really equate abortion with homicide. supporters of the measure hope to use it to mount a legal attack on roe v. wade, the 1973 u.s. supreme court decision that established the right to

abortion. congressmember ryan is also in favor of defunding planned parenthood, dismantling medicaid, wriggling obama's affordable care act as is midst -- repealing obama's affordable care act, whicas does mitt romn. nicole safar, welcome to "democracy now!" talk about paul ryan, what has been his record on women's reproductive rights? >> thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to share with the rest of the country and the world a little about what we know about congress member paul ryan. he certainly has shown himself to be one of the most extreme members of the republican party on women's health. i think he outlined it well. he wants to make abortion illegal in all cases. he has signed on to the person had bill, which we're very

concerned will have implications for in vitro fertilization, a different kinds of birth control. a very extreme measure that has been defeated in mississippi, one of the most conservative states in the country. this is something that congressman ryan thinks is good public policy for the country. that is troubling right there. >> nicole safar, i want to ask about this issue of opposing abortion in all cases. explain exactly what that means. >> that means abortion becomes illegal, it becomes a crime. there are not places where women can get a safe and legal abortion procedures, and that means if you are a victim of rape or incest, you don't have access to this. if you have held concerns -- it is really putting women's health in a very dangerous position.

a pregnancy can be a wonderful time for women, but it can be scary and a trying time on women's health. for them -- for congressman ryan to think he is the one to make the decisions to take health care options a way for women is very troubling to us. >> congressman ryan told david gregory on "meet the press," he was not concerns about republicans overplay their hand on the issue of contraception women's health. he suggested that the government requiring employers to pay for birth control would violate people's freedom of religion. >> it is not an issue about contraception but an issue that reveals the political philosophy that the president is showing up as we treat our constitutional rights as if there revoke all privileges from our government, not inalienable rights by our creator. we are seeing this new government activism, this arrogant political philosophy, that puts new government granted

rights in the way of our constitutional rights. it is an argument for freedom, for our founding principles, and protecting his constitutional rights -- with this new mandate right now, it is not about contraception, but by letting our first a minute rights to religious freedom. >> that was paul ryan earlier this year. your response? >> it is an interesting philosophy of government, isn't it? it is so out of touch with what we see on the ground every day, with what women know every day. it really is about getting access to birth control. women struggle every day to get basic health care. the affordable care act has removed some any barriers for women when it comes to the basic preventive health care like birth control and will woman exams. i think congressman ryan's friends it in a unique way

because he knows it is so out of it -- frames it in a unique way because he knows it is so out of touch. >> this is an ad approved by the obama administration the features a series of women talking about romney's plans to to find planned parenthood. >> i think mitt romney is out of touch with the average woman was health issues. >> contraception is so important to women. it is about a woman being able to make decisions. >> i don't remember anyone as extreme as romney. >> cut off funding to planned parenthood. >> he does not understand our situation. >> that was the ad against mitt romney that was approved by the obama campaign. interestingly, mitt romney once supported planned parenthood as his wife and mother did, but now says he is opposed.

but you have congressmember ryan who has been opposed throughout his career. also, just before this announcement, obama had this big event and colorado ready was introduced by sandra fluke, a young georgetown law student who became the target of rush limbaugh's ira and she tried to speak before congress on the importance of contraception the unfunded in college clinics. >> right. i mean, i think you see a very different vision for women's role in deciding when you look at what president obama has done to help women get access to better health care, to more affordable health care. and we look at governor romney and congressman ryan and their ideas, which are very 100 years ago. this is not the future that women see for themselves in america. i think it is a very stark

choice between the two sides. >> can you talk more about what is called the sanctity of human life act, what others call the personhood amendment? tell us what exactly it means, saying and fertilized egg shell have all "the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood." >> the first thing that it does is it makes all abortions in the country illegal. that means women do not have the option, even if a woman will die, even if her health is deeply at risk she no longer will be able to get the medical care she needs to protect yourself. consequences on terminal birth control and -- hormonal birth control and the implanted iud,

we don't know. we don't know how the courts would read it to affect some of those basic prevention methods. in vitro fertilization read that as a whole other area or women and families are trying to have children and are trying to have held the pregnancies, and here is the government saying, no, i think we know better than you do when it comes to you and your family. >> finally, nicole safar, talk about what happened in april, the bombing of the clinic in wisconsin. >> we did have an act of violence directed at one of our health centers this last spring. it kind of brings to light the really -- the reality of the environment that women have to sometimes go through to get access to basic health care. it should not be this way. women's health should not be politicized. we should not have to -- it

should not be used as a political football, really, when republicans are trying to stir up their base. that is probably the only time we will see paul ryan and mitt romney talk about these issues, is when they're in a crowd of conservative followers. you will not sit and talk about their opposition and birth control and abortion in mainstream media. i think that is why it is important for us to talk about these issues and lift them up so everyone knows exactly what we're getting into with the romney-ryan vision of america. >> nicole safar, thank you for being with us, public policy director of planned parenthood advocates of wisconsin. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]